But local officials' greatest fear - that the levees holding back the Rio Grande would fail and cause massive flooding - eased when Dolly meandered 35 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border just before coming ashore on South Padre Island as a Category 2 storm.
"The levees are holding up just fine," said Cameron County Emergency Management Coordinator Johnny Cavazos. "There is no indication right now that they are going to crest."
Forecasters warned of up to 12 inches of rain that could produce flooding in the heavily populated Rio Grande Valley. Up to 20 inches was predicted for isolated areas. Thunderstorms were attributed to Dolly as far away as Houston, 400 miles up the Texas coastline.
But South Texas residents still needed breakfast and the few stores that were open - even without electricity - were doing brisk business before Dolly fully revved up.
"Tienes tortillas?" Jorge Herrera shouted, rushing soaking wet into Johnny's Grocery and Meat Market #2. His 3-year-old son Michelangelo, sporting a Superman T-shirt and matching underpants, was in tow.Discovering the tortilla factories had closed before the storm and the store didn't have any to sell, the Herreras settled for a bag of charcoal, chocolate cookies and two tall cans of beer.
Store owners were most worried about the pounds of meat now sitting unrefrigerated in the July heat, but cashier Elvira Farias said her boss "wanted to stay open to serve the community.
We know that some people need to buy a meal for their kids."Residents were apparently staying put. Food was selling fast, but gas pumps were idle.
In Mexico, fields were filling with water, palm trees were bent over in the wind and beaches were closed to the public.
Maria Miguel, 102, and seven family members fled their wooden shack in the Mexican fishing community of Higuerilla and spent the night at a convention center-turned-shelter in Matamoros. "I don't know if my poor house will withstand the rain and wind," Miguel said.
Mexican soldiers made a last-minute attempt to rescue people at the mouth of the Rio Grande. The soldiers battled storm-charged waves in an inflatable raft to rescue at least one family trapped in their home, while others further inland were still refusing to go to government shelters, said Matamoros spokeswoman Leticia Montalvo."These are people who did not want to leave, and now they are in trouble," Montalvo said.
On Texas' South Padre Island, an apartment complex roof partially collapsed early Wednesday. Residents said they didn't believe anybody was injured. Melissa Zamora, a spokeswoman for the town of South Padre Island, said the roof collapse caused a plumbing leak and few residents were being relocated."I thought it was just a big clap of thunder, (then) saw this stuff flying around and it's the roof," said Buck Dopp, who lives in the ground floor apartment under the collapsed roof. Dopp and his family packed up and left the building, despite their plans to ride out the storm.
The causeway linking the island to the mainland remained closed early Wednesday.
Dan Quandt, a spokesman for South Padre Island emergency operations, said winds were picking up to around 50 mph and were expected to increase later Wednesday morning. He said there was a steady rain falling, but no reports of flooding.
A sign on a hotel blew off, but no one was injured and it did not pose a hazard, he said.
Power was knocked out to more than 13,000 customers in Cameron County, where Brownsville is located, utility company AEP Texas said. Cavazos said 11 power poles were down near the Port of Brownsville and transformers were popping downtown. Power also was out on South Padre Island.
In Brownsville, palm trees leaned and small debris was strewn across the all-but empty streets. The windows and doors of shops were boarded up with plywood and most businesses were closed.
Thousands of people fled to shelters in towns on both sides of the border patrolled by local police and National Guard troops. Evacuees flowed into an emergency shelter at Gladys Porter High School, even as Dolly's winds dismantled a school sign. Principal Dora Sauceda said people were lined up outside when she arrived at 4:30 a.m. The shelter was quickly nearing its 300-person capacity.
Miguel Angel Cruz and his wife Maria Hernandez brought their four children to the shelter because they feared the trailer they lived in wouldn't withstand the wind and a nearby resaca - or pond formed by a bend in the Rio Grande - would flood."Yes, we're scared," Cruz, a welder, said in Spanish as his family settled in. "It's our first hurricane."
At 2 p.m. EDT Wednesday, the storm's center had come ashore on South Padre Island about 35 miles northeast of Brownsville and was moving northwest at about 7 mph.Tornado watches were in effect for coastal counties between Corpus Christi and Houston through Wednesday afternoon.
The U.S. Census Bureau said that based on Dolly's projected path, about 1.5 million Texans could feel the storm's effects.
Gov. Rick Perry declared 14 south Texas counties disaster areas, allowing state resources to be used to send equipment and emergency workers to areas in the storm's path.
The storm, combined with levees that have deteriorated in the 41 years since Beulah swept up the Rio Grande, posed a major flooding threat to low-lying counties along the border. Beulah spawned more than 100 tornadoes across Texas and dumped 36 inches of rain in some parts of south Texas, killing 58 people and causing more than $1 billion damage.
Around Brownsville, levees protect the historic downtown as well as preserved buildings that were formerly part of Fort Brown on the University of Texas at Brownsville campus.
Outside the city, agricultural land dominates the banks of the Rio Grande, but thousands of people live in low-lying colonias, often poor subdivisions built without water and sewer utilities.
In the Gulf of Mexico, Shell Oil evacuated workers from oil rigs, but said it didn't expect production to be affected.
It also secured wells and shut down production in the Rio Grande Valley, where it primarily deals in natural gas. Mexico's state-run oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, said it had evacuated 66 workers from an oil platform off the coast of the port city of Tampico.
As Dolly approached, oil and gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico evacuated workers from 62 production platforms and eight rigs, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service, which monitors offshore activity.
Oil production in the Gulf was down about 4.5 percent, while natural gas production was down 7.8 percent.
Dolly is the first hurricane to hit the U.S. since the fast-forming Humberto came ashore in South Texas last September. It is the 26th hurricane known to make landfall in the U.S. in July since record keeping started in 1851, according to federal researchers.
The busiest part of the Atlantic hurricane season is usually in August and September.
So far this year, there have been four named storms, two of which became hurricanes. Federal forecasters predict a total of 12 to 16 named storms and six to nine hurricanes this season.
